It was a classroom of over 30 students attending a course on learning the Kaleidoscope - the Ophthalmology module within Epic's EMR system. Three of us are Ophthalmologists; everyone else is involved in IT at their respective hospitals - trainers and data analysts. The day started by running through a typical patient exam to benefit the majority in the room who never examined patients with eye problems. Biggest surprise? ....

We left Voyager through a secret underground passage to Andromeda, passing the gates of hell on our way to Heaven. We climbed the Stairway to Heaven together then, knees up to our chests, one by one, we zipped down the slide. A fitting way to end three days of intense course work in which zoning out for more than 30 seconds was enough to get completely lost. The walking tour of campus sounds like it could have been a metaphor for this three day Physician Builder course. Today we touched upon Best Practice Advisories (BPA) and Dynamic Order Sets. Let's discuss...

"How do I get prose out of buttons?" It's part of the art of creating artificial intelligence...and by that I strongly emphasize ARTIFICIAL. There is nothing about an EMR today that would come close to passing the Turing Test for artificial intelligence. An EMR however, if configured properly, can use rules to adapt to each patient encounter.

What was more exciting? Unravelling the mysteries of the underpinnings of the EMR? The hallway talk of the never to be resolved battle between discreet data elements and a time efficient and patient-doctor friendly narrative? The daydreaming of the first thing to tackle when I get back? Or could it have been all of the above?

It starts with a journey or it's all part of a never ending journey? I am heading to Wisconsin to begin a three day EMR Physician Builder course. This first article covers the road trip that's led me to this point along with my expectations heading into the course. More to follow over the next few days.

WholeLottaRob

I started this site in 2009 to write about Glaucoma, Health IT (EMR, EHR), Technology and to host my podcast series "Talking About Glaucoma." There is a shortcut to this blog to make it easier to find http://iguy.tv/blog.

I am a glaucoma sub-specialized Ophthalmologist and have a full time clinical practice at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic of the Geisel School of Medicine in Hanover, NH. I have a longtime interest in the use of technology to help in medical care as well as in Education. In addition, I was a very early adopter and developer of Electronic Medical Record systems who has lectured internationally on the topic of making the transition to EMRs in daily practice.